Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has continued its recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic by handling some 388.000 passengers in April, representing a decrease of 17% on the same month in 2019. The number of aircraft movements fell by the same margin. As a result, the airport has welcomed just over 1.130.800 travellers during the first four months of the year, down 25% on the record 2019, but almost three times more than last year. In 2021, the airport reached a million passengers only in July.
Over the coming days, the airport expects a surge in traffic as a result of the EuroLeague Final Four basketball tournament from May 19 until May 21. Air Serbia has increased flights and capacity to Athens, Barcelona and Istanbul. Aegean Airlines will operate a total of eleven flights from today until Sunday on its Belgrade service. In addition, Air Nostrum, Croatia Airlines, Iberojet and Orbest will operate Barcelona charters, with the latter two expected to deploy wide-body aircraft. Privilege Style will utilise its Boeing 757 from Madrid to the Serbian capital today, while Iberia plans to run two charters to Belgrade on May 19 and May 21.
Belgrade Airport’s General Manager, Francois Berisot, said late last month, “Our results are very promising. Recovery is on the way. We are now at a level much higher than last year, and we reached almost 70% of traffic in the first quarter on what we had before the crisis. Everything is happening at the right time. It was good to open the new facilities recently because we expect a very strong summer season, and we are sure that all the airlines and passengers will come back in the same volume and even more than we had in 2019”. He added, “We want to attract a lot more traffic and offer much more destinations for the benefit of the Serbian people”.
Based on its estimates and modelling formulated last year, the airport estimated it would welcome five million travellers through its doors in 2022 and will be operating at 2019 levels in 2023, when it expects to handle 6.1 million passengers. The airport estimated for figures to grow to 6.9 million in 2024, 7.3 million in 2025 and 7.7 million travellers by the end of 2026. The airport’s record year remains 2019 when it registered 6.158.897 passengers, of which 2.733.304 were carried by Air Serbia and 3.425.552 by foreign airlines.
This is a very good result, especially considering the amount of flights to Russia there were in 2019 which are no longer operative.
ReplyDeleteThey are operative.
DeleteThey are? 3 daily Aeroflot flights are operative? Red Wings flights are operative?
Delete@09:57 I'm sure he means not as operative as they were previously. A couple of flights a day to Moscow by JU on an Airbus 319 is a tiny fraction compared to the number of flights to Russia in 2019.
Delete75% of 2019 traffic can be very good result and it can be poor result, depending on the benchmark.
DeletePutting an isolated number, with no context, does not help much, unless you provide comparator. Only then we can judge the rate of recovery of BEG.
So, does anyone know what are the numbers (% vs 2019) of comparable airports?
We do have bench mark, it is 2019. And we are not comparing BEG to other airports in this case, but BEG 2019 to BEG 2022.
DeleteShould be taken into account that both Nis and Kraljevo now have decent traffic, which probably has taken away some of BEG's passengers.
Delete@Darko
DeleteAnd what are the tresholds, what % of 2019 is considered good, poor or outstanding?
As you wrote, 75% of 2019 levels for 2022 would be ok result, although I would like BEG to reach closer to 90% this year. As for 2023, 15% above 2022 levels would be great.
DeleteAh finally we will see Iberia in Belgrade. Even if for a short whiile.
ReplyDeleteI surprised they found BEG on the map. Anything east of Croatia for them is a no go zone.
Delete* i'm
DeleteI wonder which aircraft type they will send.
DeleteWould be nice if it is an A330 :D
Delete^9:10 Iberia Express used to have a seasonal service to Bucharest but they suspended it when the pandemic hit
DeleteDidn't know that. But considering the size of the Romanian diaspora in Spain (let alone there being tourist demand too), that is pretty poor.
DeleteTheir presence in the region is almost non existent.
Delete@10:16 you’re right. But competing with TAROM, Blue air, Wizz air and Ryanair on the same route is simply not worth it.
DeleteThey could offer more, particularly because of their advanced network in South America. They just have to be more active on the market.
DeleteIs there really that much demand between the Balkans and South America?
DeleteAccording to Wikipedia about "Serbian diaspora" there are between 10.000 and 100.000 people living each in Brazil and Argentina so I guess there’s a potential market between South America and Serbia either served by Iberia via MAD or a direct flight ( almost impossible to be honest )
DeleteThat is quite an old diaspora, especially in Argentina. My aunt, for instance, has some relatives there, their familly name iz Ivanovic, but threy`re unable to speak Serbian for some generations now. Don`t think they feel connected to Serbia to much.
DeleteNot bad. I think those estimates they made last year will be surpassed.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely
DeleteSeems realistic to me that numbers will be back at pre-Covid levels in 2023 like they say.
DeleteOk so how many passengers we can expect this year at BEG?
DeleteI think it will be around 5.5 million. We will see.
Delete^ Agree. That figure is doable.
DeleteThat's realistic.
DeleteIs the B757 from MAD bringing Real Madrid or fans?
ReplyDeleteI believe it will be the team.
DeleteYes, all the teams are arriving today.
DeleteThere are some videos on twitter from the planes of the arriving teams.
DeleteWhat could be the numbers for May? My guess around 450,000.
ReplyDeleteAnd how many did they have in May 2019?
Delete507,663
DeleteThank you. Then I agree 450,000 is the likely number for this May.
DeleteNot bad
DeleteI see Aegean A320 as charter coming today and Air Nostrum CRJ from BCN, guess they are bringing the teams?
ReplyDeleteCorendon is also flying this afternoon so I guess that's Efes coming.
Delete80% of the additional Aegean flights have been scheduled as charters.
DeleteYes but I think teams are arriving today. I feel sorry for Real Madrid. Imagine a bunch of tall basketball players stuck on a small CRJ.
DeleteWell it's their team management which organised this flight, they should take it up with them :D
DeleteMeanwhile fans coming on Iberojet and Orbest A330s.
DeleteDo these two airlines sell the flights openly or it is chartered.
DeleteCharter
DeleteI'm surprised there has been no change or capacity increase from Turkish Airlines.
DeleteThey have three daily flights and are using mostly A321s. Air Serbia has daily flights and is increasing one of them to A330 plus there are Pegasus flights. I think that is more than enough. If TK still had two daily flights then they might have increase capacity.
DeleteIf the Turkish teams makes it to the final, then they will probably send a bigger bird.
DeleteSorry, meant team not teams.
DeleteEfes doesn't have big fan base.
DeleteAnd BEG gets 12 new routes next month. Things are looking up.
ReplyDeleteAnd Eurowings launched DUS-BEG 2 days ago.
DeleteFlydubai goes double daily from next month, so 4 extra weekly flights.
DeleteAnd Air France resumes flights.
DeleteHow many new routes from BEG this year?
Delete17 in total.
DeleteImpressive
DeleteNorwegian also resumed ARN-BEG today.
DeleteAnyone know if Transavia is planning to resume Amsterdam Belgrade flights?
DeleteI wonder what was JU's passenger share in April.
ReplyDeleteMy guess slightly better, around 39-40%.
DeleteThis was their pre Covid share too.
DeleteIt will probably increase next month when they launch a lot of new routes.
DeleteNice to see the airport returning to life.
ReplyDeleteNice to see
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know which foreign airline is the busiest at BEG if we don't include foreign based airlines (ie Wizz Air)?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is Lufthansa.
DeleteAt the end of Q1 it was Lufthansa.
DeleteThanks. It makes sense through these means Air Montenegro's performance is rather poor.
DeleteIt's not just that, they never suspended MUC-BEG and for a while now they have been sending A320/321 from FRA.
DeleteLHG seems to have recovered the fastest from all.
Austria has removed all entry restrictions from last night so hopefully BEG-VIE performs even better.
Yes, tomorrow they are again sending A321 from Frankfurt in the evening.
Delete@9.28 yes, they have lost a big chunk of the BEG-TGD.TIV market to Air Serbia since Montenegro Airlines went bankrupt. Plus Air Montenegro's network is still rather small so many are connecting via BEG. Quite sad considering YM was really outperforming Air Serbia (especially since they had a codeshare with Air Serbia).
Deleteencouraging trends.
ReplyDeleteSpiffing news!
ReplyDeleteGood thing that they opened the C extension before this event. At least it will make arriving a much more pleasant experience.
ReplyDeleteNot really. Arrivals are still through construction site of new parking lots.
DeleteUntil they finish the building in front of the terminals the arrivals experience won't be pleasant. It is unfortunate though that they only plan to start adding shops and restaurants to C concourse in 2023.
Deletesome optimistic signs
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers did BEG have last year?
ReplyDelete3.134.106
DeleteWould be fantastic if they could handle similar numbers to 2019 this year.
Delete^ Won't happen this year.
DeleteI think BEG will be close but not at pre pandemic levels this year (passenger wise I mean).
DeleteIs 5 million passengers realistic for this year?
ReplyDeleteNo one can say anything with certainty anymore but if these trends continue and the world continues ending Covid restrictions, it will probably be above 5 million.
DeleteCongratulations. Good result.
ReplyDeleteHope we see more new airlines.
ReplyDeleteI would like them to attract more European legacies
DeleteAgree. SAS would be a welcome addition.
DeleteI'm hopeful there will be a few more routes from Wizz.
ReplyDeleteThey already launched a couple this year.
DeleteIt would be good to see if another LCC increased flights or launched new routes to BEG.
DeleteeasyJet please.
DeleteEurowings, an LCC has, has launched new routes.
DeleteTheir prices are anything but low cost.
DeleteAgree with Anon 10:24, that said I’d rather see Ryanair launching new routes from BEG to multiple destinations currently not served by a direct service such as Malaga, Krakow, Lisbon, Cologne, Tallinn, Vilnius, Manchester, Dublin, Naples, Corfu, Paphos and finally Vienna ( existing route ) in order to make prices lower and breaking that duopoly OS/JU
DeleteCongratulations to BEG, they are a truly great airport with a diverse offer. They have legacy, charter and low cost flights depending on what passengers need.
ReplyDeleteTruly great.
DeleteGood result overall
ReplyDeleteBio bih jos veci uspeh dolaskom drugog A330 da se nije desilo trenutno sto se desilo. Nadam se da ce sledece godine doci vise A320 jel su oni prekopotrebni i da ce se konacno malo vise fokusirati na Bliski istok i Afriku.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
И ја се надам да био "бих" још бољи.
DeleteI dalje nista korisno nema da se cuje od Anonymousa kao i uvek.
DeleteINN-NS
New wing looks great on the photos.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Looks modern
DeleteCan't wait for the entire project to be completed.
Delete^ BRAVO SRBIJA.
ReplyDelete